April 2010

April 18, 2010

Two Strikeforce bouts are of great importance to next month's weight-class rankings. First off, Gilbert Melendez' domination of former #1 lightweight Shinya Aoki, combined with Frankie Edgar's close (but officially unanimous) decision over ex-#2 B.J. Penn, puts Melendez at #1 next month in the lightweight ratings.

Unofficial May Lightweight rankings:

last month

LWRank

Fighter

Rating

Rated Record

April Results

3

1

Gilbert
Melendez

34.11

12-2-0

Def #1 Shinya Aoki

7

2

Frankie Edgar

30.30

7-1-0

Def #5 B.J. Penn

1

3

Shinya Aoki

27.19

14-4-0

Lost to #3 Gilbert Melendez

4

4

Kenny Florian

25.09

10-2-0

2

5

B.J. Penn

24.87

14-6-1

Lost to #7 Frankie Edgar

5

6

Tatsuya
Kawajiri

24.06

13-3-1

6

7

Gray Maynard

21.16

5-0-0

8

8

Bibiano
Fernandes

20.56

3-0-0

9

9

Sergey Golyaev

19.61

1-1-0

inactive 15 months.

10

10

Takanori Gomi

19.08

25-6-0

With Strikeforce's Melendez at #1 and the UFC's Edgar at #2, we're no closer to having a clear-cut #1 in in the lowest weight class, particularly with the Penn-Edgar decision being so controversial.

But perhaps that's better than the other weight classes, each of which has a fighter so dominant that they are out of reach of the rest of the pack. Case in point, the middleweight division, where Anderson Silva is so far ahead that even Jake Shields' impressive win over Dan Henderson does little more than solidify him as a distant #2.

last month

MWRank

Fighter

Rating

Rated Record

April Results

1

1

Anderson Silva

52.86

22-3-0

Def #14 Demian Maia

2

2

Jake Shields

36.45

20-4-1

Def #5 Dan Henderson

3

3

Paulo Filho

30.65

16-1-0

4

4

Chael Sonnen

29.48

14-10-1

6

5

Vitor Belfort

23.93

17-8-0

5

6

Dan Henderson

22.72

25-8-0

Lost to #2 Jake Shields

7

7

Jorge Santiago

19.76

14-8-0

8

8

Robbie Lawler

19.10

12-5-0

9

9

Nate Marquardt

18.93

22-9-2

10

10

Rich Franklin

18.24

22-6-0

Shields controlled the later rounds against Henderson, but what was perhaps more impressive was his recovery from a near-KO in the first minute. Surviving that first round and coming back as strong as he did might not suggest that he could give #1 Anderson Silva a run for his money, but it makes the prospect of an eventual fight a lot more interesting. In the least, Silva shouldn't be able to do what he did against Maia.

Shields and Melendez will both break into the overall top ten, with Aoki falling out.

Round One: All standup, Gracie occasionally connecting with fists, Hughes less so. Hughes gets a few good leg kicks in and gets Gracie against cage, but Gracie's round, barely. Gracie 10-9.

Round Two: More of the same; all standup. Hughes' leg kicks are becoming more numerous, and connects with more punches this round. Hughes 10-9; 19-19.

Round Three: More Thai kicks from Hughes are taking their toll. Gracie down from a kick, but Hughes backs off. Down again from a leg kick, he asks for and GETS Hughes to help him back up! Hughes content to win on strikes. Late in the round he connects with multiple punches, Gracie goes down and referee stops the fight.

Round One: Edgar was busy moving around the outside, Penn stood in the middle and fought off Edgar's occasional takedown attempts. Penn's counters were more than Edgar's taps, though Penn had a cut on his cheek. Penn 10-9

Round Two: More of the same, but Edgar is more successful in making contact, and actually had a fluke take-down where Penn stumbled. 10-10, Penn 20-19.

Round Three: Edgar still moving quickly, Penn getting frustrated a bit, but still fighting calmly. But Edgar did more this round. Edgar 10-9; 29-29.

Round Four: Another close round. Penn's shots are harder, but Edgar is busier. Even; 39-39.

Round Five: Penn has to get serious, as he might need this round. Edgar gets a real take-down, but Penn is right back up despite his corner's earlier assertion that he needed to go to the ground. Penn comes alive at the end and may have won the round. But Edgar was active while Penn did very little until the very end. Edgar 10-9; Edgar 49-48.

The judges score it 50-45 (!), 48-47, and 49-46, all for Edgar! Quite surprising, actually; after hearing the 50-45 I thought Penn would get it for sure, as you could probably more easily argue he won all 5 rounds than Edgar. But overall Edgar probably won a close contest.

Round One: Silva and Maia circling, standing. Silva with a big kick two minutes in. Looking to strike, taking a spider-like pose. Silva is winning the round with quick kicks. Maia falls due to big kick after some odd action, Maia back up. Silva 10-9

Round Two: Anderson is punching, toying with Maia. Not taking him seriously at all. But Maia isn't giving him any reason to, as he won't strike even when Silva puts his guard down completely. Silva has no respect at all for Maia. Silva 10-9; 20-18.

Round Three: This is getting to be a joke. Silva is staying away from Maia and kicking occasionally, but isn't moving to finish the fight. If he doesn't, nothing will happen as Maia has no way of doing anything it seems. Silva 10-9; 30-27.

Round Four: The fight is quickly getting to be a bore more than anything else. Silva is just staying away, not attacking. Lots of flash and movement but no punching. All the crowd-pleasing he did in the first two rounds is gone; if there were a time-limit for fighting standing up, they'd put these fighters on the ground! Now Maia is imploring him to fight. 10-10. Silva 40-37.

Round Five: Maia's face got worse during the last round and looks even worse coming out for the fifth. Maia jumps in an gets his first good shots against Silva, striking with abandon. Silva just escapes. Crowd is behind Maia now. Silva content to ride out his points edge for whatever reason. Maia grabs a leg but Silva escapes again. Referee threatens to deduct a point away from Silva for not engaging. Maia too spent to give one last effort, but he deserves the round. Maia 10-9; Silva 49-47.

What is wrong with Silva? Is the question. Something changed during the third round; perhaps he broke his hand or had some other injury?

Silva wins the unanimous decision, of course, as he should.
He says that some of the punches "got to him" and he had "ring rust" and promised it won't happen again. Apparently all that clowning in the 2nd and 3rd rounds wore him out.

Haye weighed in at 222 lbs. and Ruiz at 231, the heaviest Haye has weighed since moving up.

ROUND ONE: Ruiz comes out swinging, hunting down Haye. Haye KNOCKS RUIZ DOWN. Ruiz clinching. Ruiz down again after possible hit to back of head. 2 minutes left in round. Ruiz in bad shape but carrying on. Ruiz' experience is keeping him up, he gets in one good shot against the ropes. As the round ends, Ruiz doesn't hear the bell and continues to hit Haye after the bell. HAYE 10-8 (2nd knockdown was likely an illegal hit but no deduction was awarded, I don't think, unless they awarded it later. This round could be anywhere from 10-9 to 10-7 then)

ROUND TWO: Ruiz has recovered quite a bit, and is moving forward again. Haye with a good right hand, but Ruiz walks through it. Haye looks for opening, doesn't find it. Ruiz didn't connect much but the round was pretty close. Haye 10-9 (20-17)

ROUND FOUR: Ruiz following his gameplan, stalking down Haye. Decent right hand by Ruiz, great left jab-uppercut by Haye. Haye's speed is keeping Ruiz flat-footed. Ruiz tries to trap Haye in corner, Haye always escapes. Ruiz gets a few good shot in near the end of the round, jabs and crosses. Probably enough to give the close round to Ruiz. Ruiz 10-9 (Haye 39-36)

ROUND FIVE: Ruiz comes out fast, emboldened by his success last round. Haye makes him pay with combo, then left and right. Ruiz against ropes but takes it, Haye can't follow up. Big shot by Haye but Ruiz was covered up. Jab by Haye knocks Ruiz' head back, but he keeps coming. Sloppy round, but much more action than most Ruiz fights. Ruiz knocked down at the end of the round. Haye 10-8 (Haye 49-44)

ROUND SIX: Ruiz looking tired but still coming in, Haye dancing a bit. Haye knocks Ruiz down again, but Ruiz complains again about rabbit punches. Haye unloading. Fighters separated as Ruiz mouthpiece is retrieved. Haye waiting for another opportunity. Haye starting to punch more, to the body, then the head as the bell rings. Haye 10-8 (Haye 59-52)

ROUND NINE: Ruiz just looking for a lucky shot, but not trying much. Haye fending him off, knowing the fight is well in hand. Haye being conservative, staying out of reach. Looking for opening himself, though. Haye connects with right hand that bloodies Ruiz' face, doesn't go down though. Ruiz' corner THROWS IN THE TOWEL, David Haye wins at 2:01.

David Haye definitely proved himself with this fight, becoming only the 2nd person to stop John Ruiz. The only thing he didn't prove is his ability to follow up when he has a fighter in trouble, at heavyweight. Even after several knockdowns, Ruiz walked through Haye's biggest punches. Haye's punches have speed but not necessarily a great amount of power, so their effect depends on the angle and location more than someone like Arreola. Still, like the Klitschkos have done recently, his cumulative punching damage took its toll on Ruiz, who will fall out of the SportsRatings Heavyweight Boxing Top 100 for the first time in over a decade. Haye, meanwhile will move up to #4 ahead of Ruslan Chagaev.

The month of April has quite a bit to offer heavyweight boxing fans, but most of the matchups leave something to be desired. Here are the top five fights of the month in chronological order:

April 3rd: #5 David Haye (23-1) vs. #59 John Ruiz (44-8-1)

Let's face it, if Ruiz wins it's terrible for heavyweight boxing. Ruiz is somehow once again fighting for the WBA title; despite going 3-3 over the last five years (with another loss turned into a No Contest) he keeps getting ranked at the top.

Haye has only three heavyweight fights under his belt but the
cruiserweight champ did the HW world a big favor by beating Nicolay
Valuev, and he can do it another by beating Ruiz. Ruiz is tough for anyone to fight and Haye will further prove himself as a heavyweight if he can beat him, especially if it's by stoppage. But I think it's most likely that this one goes the distance, and like Ruiz's last several title fights, he loses a decision that he'll dispute.

Even if it's a close fight, though, it will be a unanimous decision for Haye. The fight's in the UK, and the judges aren't going to give Ruiz the nod unless he dominates. Which is fine by me; the WBA needs to get rid of Ruiz and Valuev (and Kali Meehan) from the top of their rankings.

April 9th: #55 Audley Harrison (26-4) vs. #247 Michael Sprott (32-14)

Harrison's up and down career is currently on a very slight "up" after winning the latest heavyweight Prizefighter tournament, but he's facing the last guy to knock him out. Now 38, the Olympic gold medalist reached the top 10 in 2005 before losing to Danny Williams and Dominick Guinn back-to-back. He KO'd Williams to move back into the top 25 before losing to Sprott. Losing to Martin Rogan in December 2008 knocked him clean out of the SportsRatings Top 100, but the Prizefighter tourney win has him back near the top 50.

Sprott, however, has fallen on hard times. His career's ups and downs make Harrison's look like smooth sailing. After beating Harrison and, just prior, then-undefeated Rene Detweiller, Sprott was 30-10 but ranked in the top 50. Since then he's 2-4, with losses to #173 Matt Skelton, #115 Taras Bidenko, #151 Lamon Brewster, and #32 Alexander Ustinov and wins over #149 Zack Page and unrated Werner Kreiskott. Sprott's been a gatekeeper his whole career but he could turn Harrison into one, too, with a win.

This is Harrison's last stand and he needs a win. Sprott's been so bad lately I think Audley will get the win. He'll probably have to go the distance, though, as Sprott generally doesn't get stopped.

A sad spectacle in a way, both 40+ fighters are still going, and not ranked too poorly considering their advanced years. But Holyfield is coming off two straight losses, to Sultan Ibragimov and the pathetic fight with Valuev, while Botha's most recent effort was a draw with #154 Pedro Carrion.

Hard to pick this one. Botha has youth (relatively; he's 41) on his side and beat Timo Hoffman recently, while Holyfield doesn't have a win since 2007. But Holyfield is undoubtedly the more skilled. Pretty much everyone loses with this fight.

April 16th: #11 Tony Thompson (33-2) vs. #294 Owen Beck (29-4)

Klitschko victim Thompson continues to make his way back into the title shot mix. Originally his opponent was supposed to be #131 Jason Estrada. Either way he just stays busy, as he's beaten scores of fighters of either level. Beating Beck might or might not get him back in the top ten, but either way given that he's had his chance and is 39, he might not get another unless he beats some bigger names.

April 24th: #8 Chris Arreola (28-1) vs. #27 Tomasz Adamek (40-1)

This is probably the best matchup of the month. Will Adamek exploit Arreola's lack of defense and win a decision? Or will Arreola's size overpower the former light heavyweight/cruiserweight? Those are the general-consensus outcomes.

Both fighters have a lot to gain with a win. Adamek can erase any doubts that he belongs in the HW division; beating a busted Golota and winning unconvincingly against Jason Estrada didn't prove that much. But beating Arreola would show he could beat a bigger, highly-ranked fighter who can punch hard and take a punch himself.

Arreola beat two other fighters who were just inside the top 30 at the time: Chazz Witherspoon and Brian Minto. Adamek combines Witherspoon's skills and Minto's toughness, and a lot more people would respect Arreola if he won. He hasn't fought anyone better than the two mentioned other than Vitali Klitschko, and he lost badly in that one. But if he beats Adamek people will question the Polish fighter, not give Arreola accolades. He still needs to fight a real, legit top 20 or top 10 before the prospect of facing another Klitschko can come up again. I'm hoping for a good fight out of this one, whatever happens.

April 01, 2010

A newly-trim (relatively speaking) Sam Peter has surged back into the top 10 of the SportsRatings Heavyweight Boxing ratings for April, 2010, and a wave of up-and-coming fighters is crowding into the top 35.

Janrank

AprRank

Fighter

Rating

Rated Record

January-March Results

1

1

WLAD KLITSCHKO

67.66

32-3-0

KO 12 #6 EDDIE CHAMBERS

2

2

VITALI
KLITSCHKO

41.37

21-2-0

3

3

ALEX POVETKIN

32.46

14-0-0

TKO 5 #170 JAVIER MORA

4

4

RUSLAN CHAGAEV

29.69

11-1-0

5

5

DAVID HAYE

29.23

3-0-0

7

6

NICOLAY VALUEV

24.75

21-2-0

10

7

DAVID TUA

21.91

26-3-1

UD 12 #50 FRIDAY AHUNANYA

8

8

CHRIS ARREOLA

21.51

13-1-0

16

9

SAMUEL PETER

20.86

17-3-0

TKO 2 #23 NAGY AGUILERA

9

10

SAM SEXTON

20.63

4-0-0

6

11

EDDIE CHAMBERS

20.22

13-2-0

L KO 12 #1 WLAD KLITSCHKO

Peter, down to 237 for his last fight, bested Nagy Aguilera in a 2nd round TKO and jumps to #9. Aguilera, who moved to #23 on the strength of a first round knockout of Oleg Maskaev, falls out of the top 50 as fast as he rose into it.

Meanwhile David Tua continues to float around the bottom of the top 10, this time moving up for his late March win over Friday Ahunanya. Time will tell if he takes another two years off, but Ahunanya is his highest-rated victim since Michael Moorer in 2002.

Eddie Chambers drops to #11 after his loss to Wladimir Klitschko. This is no doubt unfair to Chambers, who has losses only to the #1 and #3 fighters, and a recent win over #9 Peter. So we'll unofficially still consider Eddie to be in the top ten until further action causes the system to rectify this discrepancy.

35

22

ROBERT HELENIUS

16.46

4-0-0

TKO 8 #89 LAMON BREWSTER UD 8
#158 GBENGA OLOUKUN

22

23

OLIVER MCCALL

16.15

23-8-0

47

24

EDMUND GERBER

16.13

2-0-0

TKO 2 #32 RENE DETTWEILER

24

25

VLADIMIR
VIRCHIS

14.99

11-2-0

inactive 18 months.

25

26

SULTAN
IBRAGIMOV

14.86

8-1-1

inactive 25 months.

53

27

TOMASZ ADAMEK

14.72

2-0-0

UD 12 #62 JASON ESTRADA

27

28

MANUEL CHARR

14.65

4-0-0

TKO 10 #259 OWEN BECK

60

29

ANDRZEJ WAWRZYK

14.64

4-0-0

UD 8 #168 HARVEY JOLLY UD 8
#88 LEE SWABY

26

30

MALIK SCOTT

14.55

11-0-0

inactive 15 months.

45

31

KUBRAT PULEV

14.26

3-0-0

KO 4 #127 MATT SKELTON

28

32

ALEXANDER
USTINOV

14.15

5-0-0

RET 3 #350 ED MAHONE

29

33

ALEX DIMITRENKO

14.08

12-1-0

31

34

YAKUP SAGLAM

13.99

2-0-0

new

35

NEVEN PAJKIC

13.91

2-0-0

UD 6 #280 JASON GAVERN UD 10
#41 GRZEGORZ KIELSA

The interesting news is the advancement of several up-and-coming
prospects over the last quarter:

Robert Helenius had two strong wins, over Lamon Brewster and Gbenga Oloukun, to jump from #35 to #22. These are impressive for a 26-year-old with only a dozen pro fights. Helenius, from Finland, is also Klitschko-sized, which seems to help these days.

Edmund Gerber has shot onto the scene with two early knockouts, first of Shawn McLean (a marginal fighter who had ended Faruq Saleem's unbeaten streak), then of ex-#32 Rene Detweiller. Gerber, a German, is another young prospect, only 21, and unbeaten in just ten fights.

Tomasz Adamek is the highest-profile of this group; the former light heavyweight and cruiserweight fights Chris Arreola in April. His defeat of Jason Estrada was his second win at heavyweight, and enough to move him up to #27.

Undefeated Syrian Manuel Charr dropped a spot despite beating Owen Beck, who has lost too many fights to be worth significant points any more. Charr is just 25.

Andrzej Wawrzyk gets a little too much credit for his wins over fighters who lucked into better rankings than they deserved, but the 6' 5" Polish fighter is a promising future prospect at age 22.

Malik Scott, still undefeated and still mostly unactive, falls four spots. 32-0 but nearing age 30, he's floated near the top 25 for some time. Who knows when he will step up the activitity and competition.

Kubrat Pulev is another fighter being brought along quickly. He's 28 but has only been a pro since late last year, and is 7-0 in that time span, and his latest win over Matt Skelton puts him near the top 30. Pulev has a decade of high-profile amateur competition under his belt.

Alexander Ustinov is a huge fighter who has been making waves lately. His latest win wasn't enough to keep him from sliding a few spots due to the wave of fighters passing him, but the 6' 7" 300 lb Russian is 20-0 and has the size to win a title, as Valuev proved.

Finally, Neven Pajkic of Canada has parlayed a couple of wins into a high ranking. He did hand Grzegorz Kielsa his first defeat in a lopsided decision, and is 12-0 himself.

Somewhere in this group might be the eventual successor to the Klitschkos, should they ever retire. Few in the group seem to be much of a near-term threat to the K brothers. But I think in a couple of years several of them will be in the top ten.